<table> </table> BENNETT SPRING, Mo. | When Hugh Rose describes himself, he likes to put a twist on the title of a legendary novel.</p><p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve heard of <em>The Old Man and the Sea</em>, &#8221; he said. &#8220;Well, around here, I&#8217;m known as &#8216;The Old Man of the Stream.&#8217;&#8194;&#8221;</p><p>Rose always laughs, then puts a footnote on his statement.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m a classic example of an athlete gone to hell,&#8221; he huffed. &#8220;I&#8217;ve had both knees replaced, a torn rotator cuff and I need a walking stick to keep my balance when I walk out into the stream.</p><p>&#8220;But I&#8217;m not going to let that keep me from fishing. As long as I can walk, I&#8217;m going to be out here at Bennett Spring.&#8221;</p><p>Now 75, Rose has long followed a routine at the popular trout park in south-central Missouri. He parks in the same place every time he goes out. He fishes the same stretch of stream (under the bridge) and greets the same friends. And he always has fish on his stringer by the time he climbs out of the water.</p><p>&#8220;People know where I park, and they&#8217;ll always leave that spot open for me,&#8221; he said with a laugh. &#8220;It&#8217;s like my reserved spot.</p><p>&#8220;For me, a lot of the fun of being out here is the camaraderie. I&#8217;ve fished with some of these people for 50 years.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll come down here some days and have this hole to myself. But that&#8217;s no fun. There&#8217;s no one to lie to.&#8221;</p><p>Actually, Rose has little reason to lie. After years of following Bennett&#8217;s trout, he has become adept at catching them.</p><p>Go down to the stream in the early morning, and you&#8217;ll see him casting one of his homemade yellow and black marabou jigs to the clear water below the bridge. You&#8217;ll also see him catch fish.</p><p>Consider a day last week: On his second cast, he hooked a rainbow trout and guided it into his net.</p><p>&#8220;What took so long?&#8221; he joked.</p><p>He released the first two fish he caught, then kept the next four and he was done. All in less than an hour.</p><p>&#8220;I like to get down here early and catch the dumb ones,&#8221; Rose said, referring to trout that had been stocked the night before. &#8220;It usually doesn&#8217;t take too long to catch a limit.&#8221;</p><p>Rose has been doing that for years. After living in Overland Park and working as a teacher in the Shawnee Mission School District &#8212; and later as a handyman &#8212; he bought a weekend place near Bennett Spring when he retired.</p><p>He was there for extended periods of time while his wife worked in the Kansas City area. But that didn&#8217;t always go so well, he said.</p><p>&#8220;She told me, &#8216;You&#8217;re having way too much fun.&#8217; So she decided to join me, and we moved here full-time,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what the problem was. I gave her weekend visitation rights.&#8221;</p><p>Today, the Roses are at home in the Ozarks. And Hugh lives only a few minutes from the trout stream he loves.</p><p>&#8220;I used to fish every day,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Today, I&#8217;m only out here three days a week.</p><p>&#8220;But that&#8217;s enough. It&#8217;s more about the camaraderie now than it is the fishing.&#8221;</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">Bennett Spring State Park </span></strong><br /> &#8226;<strong>WHERE: </strong>Near Lebanon, Mo., about 165 miles southeast of Kansas City</p><p>&#8226;<strong>RECREATION: </strong>Known for its trout fishing, but it also offers excellent camping and hiking. The adjacent Niangua River is known for canoeing and float fishing. And the region is one of the best in the state for deer and turkey hunting.</p><p>&#8226;<strong>MORE INFORMATION: </strong>At the Web site <a href="http://www.lebanonmo.org">www.lebanonmo.org</a>.</p><p></div>